NEWS: 380 Tons of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq - (UPDATE: TIMING QUESTIONED)

As much as 380 tons of conventional high explosives are missing from the Al Qaqaa weapons depot is Iraq. The explosives vary from those used for demolitions, to that of making warheads and even nuclear weapons triggers. The interim Iraqi government has warned the United States government as well as the IAEA last month. The warning was issued to President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. It is unclear at this time if President Bush was informed. While international arms inspectors monitored the explosives for years, some White House and Pentagon officials have indicated that they disappeared after the invasion.



NEW UPDATE 10/29/04
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Mystery surrounds the questions of whether or not the explosives were in the bunker before and during the initial invasion of Iraq.




UPDATE 10/26/04: Since the story broke regarding the missing 380 tons, allegations and denials have been issued by both political parties. Seizing on this �failure� the Kerry campaign has responded with adds and campaign. Stating"this is one of the great blunders of Iraq and one of the great blunders of this administration." the Kerry campaign has gone on the attack. Responding the Bush campaign has called the charges �baseless�. As first reported by ATS member Valhall in this thread, it has come to light that elements of the 101st Airborne Division arrived at Al Qaqaa on April 10, just one day after the fall of Baghdad. On arriving at the base, they found no weapons stored at the facility. This claim is further bolstered by the fact that an NBC news crew was embedded with the unit at the time and has verified these claims.
This story is continuing to develop at this time. Please stay tuned to ATSNN for further updates. FredT reporting.

Report: Explosives could not be found when U.S. troops arrived, NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from a storage depot in Iraq has taken a new twist, after a television news crew embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion of Iraq reported that the material could not be found when American troops arrived.
Explosives could not be found when U.S. troops arrived

The administration has never publicly announced the disappearance of so much material. The area in question was to have been guarded by the U.S. military, but for reasons as yet unexplained, the area ended up being a no mans land. Looters were noted at the site as recently as yesterday. Administration officials have indicated that the Iraq Survey Group, part of the CIA, has been tasked to investigate the disappearance of the explosives. Weapons experts fear that the missing explosives such as HMX and RDX could be used in terrorist attacks as well as improvised munitions against troops in Iraq. The IAEA warned as early as last May that the unguarded base would be the �greatest explosives bonanza in history."



Special Thanks To Rant



[edit on 29-10-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

[edit on 29-10-2004 by John bull 1]

Well, its like everything else this current government is supposed to safeguard.

Yet another weapons site gets looted.
How strange that such little attention is being given to these sites when the primary excuse given for the war was Saddam's weapons.

did i hear someone say OPPPS!

As I posted in the ATS thread. i want to see the point of origin of those cargo containers in fron of the looted bunker. One has to wonder how they let this get so bad. I mean that much explosives, they had to practicaly drive a semi up to the door.

Originally posted by FredT
As I posted in the ATS thread. i want to see the point of origin of those cargo containers in fron of the looted bunker. One has to wonder how they let this get so bad. I mean that much explosives, they had to practicaly drive a semi up to the door.

I'm looking for information on it now.

So far, I've found reports that Iraq had it's own RDX (cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine?) production facilities.

You know the other interesting question? Why did the US leave the site alone? I mean that would be on my list of prime targets after command and controll don't you think? A couple of bunker busters would have done it nicely. Its not like they wanted to keep the stuff after the war. Why did they let that one go? And the CIA doing the investigation? Geeez, maybe this is a case for the IAEA????

An article from 1991 mentions the importation of RDX and HMX so it may not have been new stuff:

Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS)
Nucleonics Week, 9/12/91, pp. 7-9
Ambiguity exists concerning the activities of the Al Qaqaa State Establishment, located 30 mi south of Baghdad, Iraq. According to Iraqi officials, bridge wires being developed there were for "fire-set" components used to separate missile stages with precision. However, such devices are also crucial for precise detonation of high explosives in a nuclear implosion device. Iraqi officials also stated they had been developing RDX and metal cast explosives and had imported hundreds of tons of HMX explosives, which can be used in nuclear weapons.

I found a site that says the HMX came from a Chilean explosives expert:

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1992)
Iraq imported hundreds of tons of HMX high explosives, the most desirable conventional explosive for nuclear weapons. Western intelligence believes that Chilean explosives expert Carlos Cardoen exported most of the HMX to Iraq. Cardoen, who set up a cluster bomb factory near Baghdad, is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Who made the explosive and how it got to Iraq is unknown, although Eastern Europe is suspected.

[edit on 24-10-2004 by AceOfBase]

Some more information on Cardoen:

Washington Post
According to a sworn court affidavit prepared by Teicher in 1995, the United States "actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure Iraq had the military weaponry required." Teicher said in the affidavit that former CIA director William Casey used a Chilean company, Cardoen, to supply Iraq with cluster bombs that could be used to disrupt the Iranian human wave attacks. Teicher refuses to discuss the affidavit.

ABC NEWS Nightline September 13, 1991
The CIA's position on Cardoen is definitive. The agency told Nightline, "The CIA has never had a relationship of any type with Carlos Cardoen."

Somehow, though, Cardoen arranged for the transfer of cluster bomb technology to Chile, and set up his own factory to build them. As Nightline reported earlier, that technology came from ISC, International Signal and Control, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In October of 1984, ISC and Cardoen signed an agreement, in effect carving up the world's cluster bomb market. Cardoen would sell to all those countries with which ISC was prevented, under U.S. law, from doing business.

Could all this have gone on without the knowledge of the U.S. government? Senior Israeli officials have told Nightline that in the 1980s they were informed directly by the U.S. government that Carlos Cardoen was producing cluster bombs, using U.S. technology, and that these were being shipped to Iraq. Furthermore, several ISC executives claim a longstanding relationship with U.S. intelligence.

By 1988, Cardoen was not only selling cluster bombs to the Iraqis, he built them their own cluster bomb factory, like this one in Baghdad. He also provided the Iraqis with thousands of fuses to arm chemical weapons that were used in the Iran-Iraq war. And, according to foreign intelligence reports, Iraq was working on cluster bombs to dispense chemical and biological weapons with Cardoen's help.

By the time Iraq invaded Kuwait, Cardoen was also finishing a plant to produce sophisticated fuses for artillery shells and fuel-air explosives. Some of that advanced technology also came from the United States.

This situation, and a fake checkpoint where 44 Iraqi Guardsmen were killed is proof of the lack of security and control in Iraq. I think we need about 50k more troops in there.

I have to wonder what kind of idiots we have running the operation over there. Or are we deliberately letting this stuff happen. If not then I must say our leaders are inept at best.

hmmm...i think "we're" letting it happen so we can then say its MISSING, or, we have a real dummy minding the store.

Here we go again idiocy without reason.......what person collects a 380 ton cache of explosive and then dont guard it ....from the pictures I saw of the sites it looked like a cat burgalar went in at night and took it all.....I say that because I didnt see obvious large scale battle damage as to the amount you would expect to see when protecting something so important.....This stuff is going to show up again real soon and US,Iraqis and coalition forces will be desimated when it does.......If I remember right wasnt the bomb in Oklahoma like 11 tons and it blew the he** out of the building and shattered windows up to 9 miles away imagine what a truck bomb of 50, 100 or even 150 tons of the 380 ton total can do it would basically destroy every thing in a 1 to 2 mile radious and the after shock could probably be hear and fell in the next city or next country if even faintly....man the fall out is going to leave a crater so large you will be able to fit the city of Texas in it and still have room........I would imagine the hole 380 tons would be equal in destructive power to one of the bombs dropped in Japan during the world war......

What size vehicle can be used to effectively move say 15 tons of the explosives and in that vehicle would you be able to cause maxiumum damage to your target even if stopped only 100 to 700 yards from the target location which is when most suspicion of the intent of the vehicle would be know causing action against the vehicle....

OKAY I found it the smaller atom bomb droped on Nagasaki Japan had a yeild of 15,000 pounds of TnT, now the TnT compaired to convientinal exspolsives today......there is a 1.375 to 1 ratio where in 1 ton of modern explosive is equal to almost 1 1/2 tons of TNT from the Nagasaki era so if my math is right it should go like this


380 tons modern explosive yield
x1.375 tons older explosive yield
-------------------
522.5 tons yield


15.000 nagasaki yeild
divided 522.5 380 ton modern explosive yeild
-----------------------
equals just over 1/3 the total yeild of nagasaki


now what does that mean well their were 70,000 to 80,000 people killed
28,000 buildings destroyed by the Nagasaki bomb with a total destruction rate of 85% totally destroyed out to 1.2 miles from inpact.........now cut that by 1/3

you have a 23.333 to 26.666 thousand people killed
9,333 buildings destroyed
0.4 miles or 2112 feet square 80% total destruction

to me that translates to Iraqs down town or green zone area being wiped off the map

another blunder by the Bush adminestraition

The IAEA said the US-led coalition had been warned about the danger posed by the explosives on several occasions.

Originally posted by bodrul
another blunder by the Bush adminestraition

The IAEA said the US-led coalition had been warned about the danger posed by the explosives on several occasions.

alot of good that warning did it just made the where abouts known probably as these ding bats always seem to mention hey you know the nuke your hiding on 8th and summit ave well that thing is a target to get stolen .....nothing like giving an adress to the thing you are wanting to put more protection on and then telling every one with a little devil on their shoulder and nothing else to do but cause havoc the doors open come on in

380 Tons of Explosives Missing in Iraq. We continue to hear the U.S. Government alter its stance on the reasons for war with Iraq. No matter the current situation, no one can seemingly argue the feeling that urgency was expressed in regard to weapons of mass destruction. As the invasion evolved to occupation, it is clear that there was no plan nor manpower to control the post-invasion Iraq. Now it has become painfully obvious that there was no plan no manpower to guard the supposed massive cache of weapons. Can we now really trust any small attribute of the original story and theory regarding Iraq and weapons? If the U.S. Government had even the slightest suspicions that massive weapons caches would be found, certainly the manpower would have been reserved to guard these dangerous stockpiles. Instead, there are no guards. There are no plans. There is only the ineptitude of the deepest and most serious kind of which allowed the attacks on 9/11 to occur. So now, indeed, the connection between 9/11 and Iraq has been found -- the inept U.S. Government is the long sought-after connection.

Bravo SkepticOverlord I can appreciate that statement and sadly very few in washington can dispute it either..... you know you guys in ATSNN get to have all the fun finding these stories and putting here for us it seems Im missing out but keep them coming and keep the comments of truth coming as well

[edit on 25/10/2004 by drbryankkruta]